I’m going to make Vegetarian Matzo Ball soup today, so I decided to make homemade vegetable stock.

First time

This is the first time I’ve made homemade vegetable stock, but I’m confident that I can create something tasty. My homemade chicken stock (which I don’t make anymore) had an abundance of vegetables in it to help it taste fab.

Waste not, want not

Making homemade stock is a great way to use up veggies in your fridge. Here’s what I put in my stock today:

Ingredients

Carrots
Parsley
Mushrooms
Bell peppers
Anaheims
Yellow tomatoes
Red tomatoes
Tomatillos
Sweet onion
Parsnips

For seasoning, I added:

Capful garlic powder
Capful Mrs. Dash Lemon Pepper
Capful Onion powder
Capful celery root powder (since I didn’t have fresh celery to throw in the pot)

Method

The secrets to great stock are patience, slow simmering, and doing as little prep to your veggies as possible. Wash all veggies and remove any loose skin from onions and tomatillos. Do NOT peel, cut or anything — put the veggies into your pot whole. Exceptions for me are if the vegetables have a thick, waxy coating on them from the produce department (such as parsnips). If that’s the case, I definitely peel them.

Cover all your veggies with water, bring to a boil, then reduce your heat, cover and simmer all day.

Strain and discard the vegetables from the stock, taste the stock and add salt or other seasoning to your taste. Refrigerate or freeze and enjoy!

PS – looking for a vegan matzo ball recipe? Check this out.

Asparagus asparagus (can you do the fandango)

Originally uploaded by itsjustanalias

Spring is the perfect time to reach for delicious asparagus. I’ve become a fan of the new show, “Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution.” In surfing his web site this morning, I came across this lovely-sounding Asparagus Soup recipe. Although I’ll be skipping the ciabatta since it’s Passover, I’ll sub matzo for the ciabatta. And, if you’re vegan, you can skip the poached egg as well.

I’ve printed Jamie’s recipe just as published. Love his language and cooking terms!

Creamy Asparagus Soup

by Jamie Oliver

Read the recipe and article by clicking here.

Ingredients

• 800g asparagus, woody ends removed (slightly less than 2 pounds)
• olive oil
• 2 medium white onions, peeled and chopped
• 2 sticks of celery, trimmed and copped
• 2 leeks, trimmed and chopped
• 2 litres good-quality chicken or vegetable stock, preferably organic
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 10 small very fresh free-range or organic eggs
• 8 slices of ciabatta bread
• a knob of butter
• extra virgin olive oil

Method

Chop the tips off your asparagus and put these to one side for later. Roughly chop the asparagus stalks. Get a large, deep pan on the heat and add a good lug of olive oil. Gently fry the onions, celery and leeks for around 10 minutes, until soft and sweet, without colouring. Add the chopped asparagus stalks and stock and simmer for 20 minutes with a lid on. Remove from the heat and blitz with a hand-held blender or in a liquidizer. Season the soup bit by bit (this is important) with salt and pepper until just right. Put the soup back on the heat, stir in the asparagus tips, bring back to the boil and simmer for a few more minutes until the tips have softened.

Just before I’m ready to serve the soup, I get a wide casserole-type pan on the heat with 8 to 10cm of boiling water. Using really fresh eggs, I very quickly crack all 10 into the water. Don’t worry about poaching so many at the same time. They don’t have to look perfect. A couple of minutes and they’ll be done, as you want them to be a bit runny. Toast your ciabatta slices. Using a slotted spoon, remove all the poached eggs to a plate and add a knob of butter to them. To serve, divide the soup between eight warmed bowls and place a piece of toast into each. Put a poached egg on top, cut into it to make it runny, season and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil.

How do I prep leeks?

I confess not cooking often with leeks. I understand they are quite sandy. Here’s a great how to from Real Simple magazine on prepping your leeks: